On the Move

Cells creep around using radiating filaments called lamellipodia shown here as red spikes projecting out from this human cell (with the nucleus shown in blue). Lamellipodia are formed from many different proteins, which must be sorted and packaged by the tiny structures, called golgi bodies (shown in green) before they are posted to the right place inside the cell. By preventing the delivery of certain proteins, researchers found that one, called clathrin heavy chain, is vital for orchestrating the formation of lamellipodia. Different cell types are creeping around our bodies all the time and this cellular migration is key to many biological processes. Knowing which proteins are in control boosts our understanding of how cells behave in health, as in wound healing and development, and also in disease, as in cancer cell migration (metastasis).

Written by Helen Pilcher

Helen Pilcher

Writer

Helen is a freelance science writer who lives in rural Warwickshire. She studied Neuroscience and has a PhD in stem cell biology, but now writes news, features and opinion pieces about science for magazines and the internet.

• Alexis Gautreau
• CNRS Laboratoire d'Enzymologie et Biochimie Structurales, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
• Published in the Journal of Cell Science